The Day Before, It
by Duke157
Summary: "How Long?" "24 Hours." Rated M for later chapters.


**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or any characters involved.**

* * *

It was another regular day at the aquarium, at least for the 21-year old raven-haired Savior of Olympus, Percy Jackson. He calmly walked into the aquarium and made his way to the changing room, paying no heed to the mayhem that has broken out on the streets of Manhattan. He had briefly glanced out on his way in, scanning if it was a monster attack, but it was just the normal stuff. Well, as normal as it had been since previous night.

The aquarium was completely deserted, no doubt caused by whatever happened on television the previous night. These mortals were clueless to the truth, but Percy knew better. And he hadn't heard anything wrong from his girlfriend either, which meant the world was just fine.

"Annabeth." The demigod sighed delightedly as his thoughts wandered over his girlfriend of five years and the love of his life, Annabeth Chase. He hoped to change that last name to Jackson soon enough, the little box in his coat pocket had lived there for long enough now that it needed move soon, hopefully to the finger of the aforementioned beauty and not back to the jewelry shop.

He knew his fears are baseless and unfounded, not after they've been through so much, but he can't help but worry that she would want the Hero Percy, the guy who fought ancient primordial gods, and titans, and giants, not the guy who works in an aquarium and can barely manage to supply half the rent for their apartment.

Shaking off his worries and fears, son of Poseidon took off his clothes and changed into his uniform. It was a simple white t-shirt with the aquarium logo above his heart and a pair of orange shorts that were actually swimming trunks made to look like regular shorts so they can be worn outside. Shoving his key card in his side pocket, he shut his locker door and made for the main tank, after picking up a bucket of fish food.

As Percy round the corner to the entrance of the tank, he noticed someone standing by the glass of the dolphin tank. The man seemed quite old, possibly in his forties, and he was wearing a yellow beach shirt, white shorts and bright red flip flops. It took him a few seconds but he recognized the familiar rush of power emanating from the man he knew as the God of the Sea and his real father, Poseidon.

"Hi Dad." The Olympian broke off his conversation with Slippy the dolphin and turned to face the source of the voice.

"Ah son, didn't see you there."

"You are the Olympian God of the Sea, who is waiting for his son at his office. I'm sure you knew where I was since I was five blocks away." Percy set the bucket in his hand aside and led the two men to a set of table and chairs near the cafeteria.

"I was trying to act like a regular mortal dad who came to see his son at work."

"We are anything but regular mortals." The younger man started toying with a pen.

"Today, we must as well be regular mortals."

Percy glanced up at his father, the pen rolled out of his fingers, forgotten. "What do you mean we might as well be?"

"I'm sure you would have heard of the news last nig-"

"Of course, it was all over the place. Every channel, every newspaper that actually got delivered. Even the walls of our apartment. Yes, what about it?" The demigod sensed something was off about his father. He seemed tired, like he had resigned his fate or something.

"It's true. Everything about it is true." NO.

"What do you mean everything about it is true? You can't be serious. This isn't happening. This can't be happening. But…" Percy rose up from his seat, clutching his head with his right arm.

"I'm sorry, son."

"But… You're the gods. The world cannot end, how can you let the world end. And this can't be true. The Mayan Gods don't exist. And they were wrong about 2012 anyways. What makes you sure that they are right this time." Percy was desperate at this point. The world could not end like this.

"They were right about what was happening back in 2012. It just wasn't happening at that moment. Some idiot of theirs just messed up the math like you always do. Or maybe the translator got the date wrong. Whatever happened, somewhere someone fucked up. And that's why we are left with this shitty predicament." Percy jerked his head around at his father's foul language.

"But… They don't exist… and they can't be that powerful, right?"

"Son, the Gods and Goddesses are only as powerful as the people believe they are."

"I don't understand."

"The Gods, Goddesses, Titans, Giants, the Primordial Gods all exist because a lot of people believe in them. It's also why we have Roman forms, because the Romans adopted their Gods and Goddesses from the Greeks. And they all exist, every last one of them from almost every single major religion. They all have their respective deities. You just don't see them because you see us. And most of them like to keep to their own territories. Like those Indian gods, I have no clue about the actual number, but there seem to be a million of them, and they all cram into such a small area."

"So the Mayan Gods exist?" Percy implored hesitantly.

"Yes they exist. And those stupid Mayans believed that their Gods were all powerful to such an extent that they could overpower us by a very large margin. And did it end there? Nope, not even close. They believed that they had a set number of days, months and years before the world would end as they knew it. Fucking idiots. Why couldn't they just be happy with what they had?"

"Isn't there anything that we could do?"

"I'm really sorry son, but the answer is no. Even the Fates showed us that nobody's string extended past tomorrow. Not the Olympians, not the Muddy Grandma, not even those three old knitting bats themselves." Percy's expression turned grave as he realized the extent of the oncoming threat.

"Can't we try and stop it? I mean, someone, anyone could use their powers. Maybe we can even convince the Titans, or the Primordials. _Anyone._ " Desperation filled the 21-year old's mind as he tried to grasp on even tiniest straws for help.

With an exasperated sigh, the older man shook his head. He had already come to terms with his own death, in fact one could even say he was excited to see what was on the other side. As a God he understood that would never happen unless the world ended, but he couldn't deny that he wasn't curious. But whenever he thought of Percy, he was reminded why he shouldn't wish for something like that. He wanted to see his son live a long happy life with Athena's daughter. He wanted to see them get married and have kids. He wanted to see those kids grow up, fall in love, get married and have kids of their own. He owed his son that much and it almost killed him that he had to be the one to tell Percy that he couldn't give him all of that. He silently cursed Zeus for forcing each of the Olympians to tell their children the bad news.

"How long?"

Poseidon broke out of his reverie and returned his attention to his son. "Yes Percy?"

"How long before it happens? Before the world ends?" Poseidon studied the young demigod's face, though his expression revealed nothing.

"The meteorite is expected to hit at around ten in the morning tomorrow. And it is nine right now. You have a little over 24 hours."

"Dad, can ask you a favour?"

"Yes Percy, anything. Anything at all."

"I need to get to San Francisco as fast as possible. Can you do that?" Poseidon noticed the desperation in Percy's face but the determination in his eyes was far more evident.

"Yes. Go to the beach, talk to the nymphs and you will reach San Francisco before ten."

"Thanks Dad." Percy smiled at his father, and headed for the door, but he was stopped before he could reach there.

"Oh, and Percy. Because you are a demigod who contributed to the camps, the Olympians have agreed to grant each and every demigod, one iris message and one teleport of three people or lesser to any place in the world. For the IM, use a drachma as you usually do and for the teleport, think of the place you want to go while holding the hands of the person you want to teleport with, and say the words _'Lord Hermes, please teleport us to place we desire.'_ "

"Thanks, and can you inform mom about this."

"I'm headed there right now." Poseidon waited until he saw Percy run through the door, grab his coat and disappear outside, and then he disappeared in a gust of vapor.

* * *

Percy ran past the unguarded entrance of Camp Jupiter. "Seems like they've been informed about the meteorite." He frantically searched the camp for any sign of the blonde woman of his dreams, brushing past many terrified demigods, Greek and roman alike. Many had their heads in their arms, crying, while a few others were staring at the sky, trying to find the dot that was supposed to destroy their world. He trampled over a few dead bodies, no doubt of those who took their own lives because they could not digest the idea that the gods could do nothing to stop the world from ending.

Percy knew he could only hope that Annabeth hasn't already used her teleport to get to New York. After a moments search he came across Hazel and Frank clinging to each other, grief and tears coloring their face.

"HAZEL! FRANK!"

"Percy!" They turned to face their friend running towards them.

"Have you se-"

"The Atrium. Go."

"Thanks."

Percy ran down to the Atrium and skidded to a halt behind exactly the person he was looking for. "Annabeth." He called out to her.

Annabeth turned around upon hearing Percy's voice. "Percy." She leaped into his open arms and hugged him tightly. "Percy, they said… they told me…"

"Yes love. I know." He gripped her tighter as she cried into his shoulder.

"But… but we… we did so much. We saved the world twice... How can they do this to us? Was it all for nothing?"

Percy pushed Annabeth off of him. "No. Don't ever say it was all for nothing. Because that isn't true at all. Annabeth, I love you and I have been in love with you since before we started dating. We got through two wars, and even survived the dangers of Tartarus to get where we are right now. And because of that, I would trust you with anything, my life, my future, my everything. Because you are all of that to me, and I want the world to know that." Percy got down on one knee and took out that little box he'd been holding on to. "Annabeth, I know this isn't how you would've imagined your engagement, and this whole _'the world ends in 24 hours'_ thing really puts a damper on the mood, but I ask you to look at the world through my eyes. I've been through two wars and Tartarus with you, knowing that either of us could die at any given second and at every second of the war, I only had one wish. I wished that the two of us would be alive and together for just another second. And now, I know I have 24 hours with you and I'll be damned to Tartarus and back if I'm going to waste even one second of that. So Annabeth Chase, will you marry me and grant me the pleasure of spending the rest of our lives together?"

"Yes… Of course." Percy felt Annabeth's lips against his own as the two met in the middle of the Atrium. Her hands ran through his silky hair as he wrapped his own around her back. The two desperately clung to the other for support as their tongues clashed against each other like one of their sparring matches. The kiss was perfect for the situation, with the right mix of desperation, hope, happiness and excitement. Only the lack of air finally broke the two apart. They wanted to last the entire 24 hours. Lightly pecking Annabeth on her lips, Percy split them apart and grabbed her hand.

"Come on, let's go. We have many places to get to and very little time."

"Lead the way, _husband._ " Annabeth seductively purred out the final word. She liked calling him that.

"I'm still your fiancé… But don't be alarmed, I will be your husband before the world ends. I promise, on the River Styx."

* * *

"Aww… Those two are so cute…"

"Aphrodite, get back here. You still have hundreds of thousands of children left to inform."

"Oh calm down Iris. I can't ignore those two. I could spend all day just watching those two. And I want to do that. Why do I have to do this many? Zeus only has to inform two people. And Hera doesn't have to do anything."

"You wouldn't either, if you weren't such a slut. Did you really have to sleep with so many people?"

"Sex is amazing, Iris. You should try it more often."

"Whatever, you're lucky I'm helping you. Now get back here, we only finished the Americas, and we aren't even close to done. Let's do Africa next." Iris dragged the Goddess of Beauty away from the television which displayed Percy and Annabeth.

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 **This was an idea I had when I was listening to a song called 'The Day Before We Went To War' by Dido. It reminded me of 2012 and BAM... Out came this fic. I will write a few more chapters very soon. Please let me know what you think with a review. They are highly appreciated.**

 **Also, I'll update my story, Roommate Romance very very soon. I have typed out half the chapter already. Please go check that out if any of you are Dramione fans. Thanks.**

 **Until Next time.**


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